Note: This article was originally published in Technician on January 26, 2006.
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Kids will like this 'Nanny'
Nanny McPhee is not a movie for the average college student; however, in terms of kids' flicks, it's a fairly good film that most adults should at least find tolerable, if not entertaining.
It has been 10 years since Emma Thompson's last venture into feature film writing (Sense and Sensibility), but if this adaptation of the Nurse Matilda book series is any indication, she still has a knack for it. Thompson stars as a snaggletoothed nanny who uses magic to teach a family of seven children how to behave. It's Mary Poppins for the Harry Potter generation, but luckily this film manages to distance itself enough from its predecessor to emerge as a unique movie that kids are sure to enjoy.
This film has "fairy tale" written all over it. From a house with neon walls, to a dancing donkey, magic spells and Raleigh-esque weather, there are a variety of fantasy elements that serve to transport the viewer into a world that looks as if it came directly from the mind of a child. Thompson doesn't bother to explain the details of why certain things are how they are, and this will probably annoy the more mature viewers. But these vague intricacies won't be noticed by the film's intended audience -- children between the ages of five and ten.